Dangerous Liaisons: How to Recognize and Escape from Psychopathic Seduction

by Claudia Moscovici

Overview

What do Scott Peterson, Neil Entwistle and timeless literary seducers epitomized by Don Juan and Casanova have in common? They are charismatic, glib and seductive men who also embody the most dangerous human qualities: a breathtaking callousness, shallowness of emotion and the incapacity to love. In other words, these men are psychopaths. Unfortunately, most psychopaths don’t advertise themselves as heartless social predators. They come across as charming, intelligent, romantic and kind. Through their believable “mask of sanity,” they lure many of us into their dangerous nets. Dangerous Liaisons explains clearly what psychopaths are, why they act the way they do, how they attract us and whom they tend to target. Above all, this book helps victims find the strength to end their toxic relationships with psychopaths and move on, stronger and wiser, with the rest of their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761855699
Publisher:	Hamilton Books
Publication date:	09/20/2011
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Claudia Moscovici is a Romanian-American fiction writer and literary critic. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Velvet Totalitarianism (2009) and of several scholarly books on Romantic art and literature, including Romanticism and Postromanticism (2007).

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

Part I. What is a Psychopath?

1. Charismatic Psychopaths: Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle

2. What is a Psychopath? Close Readings of Hervey Cleckley’s

The Mask of Sanity

3. Psychopaths and Pathological Lying

4. The Psychopath’s Antisocial Behavior

5. Psychopaths as Lovers

6. Psychopaths and Failure

Part II. The Process of Psychopathic Seduction

1. The Case of Drew Peterson

2. Red Flags: How to Identify a Psychopathic Bond

3. The Process of Psychopathic Seduction: Idealize, Devalue and Discard

4. Artistic Psychopaths: The Case of Picasso

5. The Psychopathic Seducer in Literature: Benjamin Constant’s Adolphe

6. The Women Who Love Psychopaths

7. Coping Mechanisms for Staying with a Psychopath

Part III. How to Save Yourself from Psychopathic Seduction

1. Escaping the Psychopath

2. Understanding the Science Behind the Disorder

3. The Two Phases of Mourning: The Rational and the Emotional

4. Sharing Information with Others

5. Resisting Family/External Pressure to Stay with the Psychopath

6. Know your Worth: A Healthy Self-Esteem is the Key to a Good Life

7. Conclusion: Reclaiming Your Life: Asserting Your Agency and Your

Boundaries

Notes

Bibliography

Additional Resources: Websites

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

The Institute has long said that what is shocking is not that pathology exists, but that there is so little public and survivor education about the most dangerous relationships on the planet. Claudia Moscovici’s Dangerous Liaisons is a needed perspective about the invisible tyranny and death grip of pathological love relationships and what they do to those who love psychopaths. We can’t avoid what we can’t spot, and we can’t heal from what we don’t identify. This book helps to highlight the unique strength and lure of pathology, the devastating outcomes to the survivor, and an understanding of what pathology is and does.

Sandra L. Brown

As a clinical specialist in psychopathy, I find that nobody addresses this personality disorder more trenchantly, and with more penetrating insight, than Claudia Moscovici.. .. Dangerous Liaisons examines the dynamics of this puzzling, chilling personality and applies its insights to real-life, contemporary examples of psychopaths in the news. Moscovici has written a book from which anyone (curious lay person or seasoned clinician) interested in how psychopaths insinuate themselves into our lives, leaving behind a trail of devastation, will benefit immensely.

Steve Becker